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-- the magic of using a compressor (help me)

the magic of using a compressor (help me)

Does any one here know much about compressors and how they change the sounds.Im using fruity if that makes a difference on your responses.
If someone who uses fruity could explain each of the knobs it would be greatly appreciated.
Please try to write in something besides tech talk if at all possible as I am don't have too many tech discussions being the only person who produces in this town.

A compressor is basically an automatic volume control. Imagine yourself with your hand on a fader and your eyes on an input level meter. As long as the meter stays below a certain point (the threshold), you leave the fader all the way up and the gain is unchanged. But the instant sound gets louder, you pull down the fader by a certain amount (the ratio). After the sound gets soft again, you push the fader back up. That's what the compressor is doing, except much faster and more accurately than humanly possible.

In mathematic terms: Say your signal is 4db. And yu set your ratio to 2:1. The compressor will take that 4db and turn it into 2db.

Paradoxically, by cutting the peak levels, a compressor allows you to raise the average level of a sound using the Output control to make it sound louder.

Take a vocal signal for instance.
As a singer sings, her voice fluxuates in db level between words and even in the middle of a multi-syllabic word. A singer will say certain syllables lower or higher in volume. By applying a compressor, the lower db syllables are untouched by the compressor but the higher db syllables are lowered. In the whole picture, the lower db syllables seems louder relative to the higher db syllables after it's run through compressor. To the ear, the voice sounds even and controlled.

Compression is often a lot in vocal, bass, and percussions. A lot of engineers like to apply a lot 4:1 to 10:1 ratio on the bass and percussions because that is the foundation of the track.

sweet thats exactly what I was lookin for man

Whats a good Hardware Compressor? I was looking at some of the Behringer one's. But noticed there pretty cheap? Am I getting what I pay for, cheap hardware? or decent enuf?

if youre going hardware you wanna go neve or crane song...but that shit is really expensive...but they are the best frmo what I've heard

Holy *uckin *hit batman

http://www.cranesong.com/stc8.html

that bitch is expensive. Is that something we want for a home studio hehe

ok so I played my tune through a program called e-jay and I noticed the pattern in the peaks looks a bit different.Is there a free vst that will tell you how your song is peaking and in which frequency so I can have something visual to hear it with?

quote:

Is there a free vst that will tell you how your song is peaking and in which frequency so I can have something visual to hear it with?

Um...I think what you are looking for then is this:


INSPECTOR free VST for peak analysing!

damm that thing looks nifty...
now if only it worked on my computer
*hits computer*

quote:

Originally posted by Pappa Holy *uckin *hit batman http://www.cranesong.com/stc8.html that bitch is expensive. Is that something we want for a home studio hehe

well neve and cranesong are the best of the best when it comes to compressors...every big studio with some selfrespect owns 2 or 3 of each


okay I really hope you were kidding about E-jay, please tell me you don't have that piece of shit on your computer

well anyway, that freeware analyzer rocks from what I've heard, but if you wanna go for payware then check out the waves-tools

that's what I'm running

also if you want even more expensive and good hardware, check out GML

quote:

Originally posted by Vizay well anyway, that freeware analyzer rocks from what I've heard, but if you wanna go for payware then check out the waves-tools that's what I'm running GML

Which part of the Wave's Tool are you using for this?

yes I do have e-jay but i wanted to make it clear that.
A) I don't put out demo's on it
B) I use it to see if my songs I make will mix with each other
C) I know how to spin a little on regular tables as well.But I sold mine for a computer so I can make it instead.

Now if already put forth the effort to make the tune then there really shouldn't be a problem right.

quote:

Originally posted by Pappa Which part of the Wave's Tool are you using for this?

PAZ analyzer...part of the waves gold bundle

quote:

Originally posted by Pappa Whats a good Hardware Compressor? I was looking at some of the Behringer one's. But noticed there pretty cheap? Am I getting what I pay for, cheap hardware? or decent enuf?

Stay away from Behringer compressors. Really, I know a lot of people say Behringer is crap. Usually it is not really super, but the price/quality ratio is great. The compressors, no. Stay away.

If you can find them, the RNC (Really Nice Compressor, don't be fooled by the stupid name) from FMR audio is one of the best buys you can make. They are not really expensive (170$ I believe). Honestly I can say it's the only sub 500$ compressor that is worth buying. But it's hard to find...

quote:

Originally posted by Dj Thy Stay away from Behringer compressors. Really, I know a lot of people say Behringer is crap. Usually it is not really super, but the price/quality ratio is great. The compressors, no. Stay away. If you can find them, the RNC (Really Nice Compressor, don't be fooled by the stupid name) from FMR audio is one of the best buys you can make. They are not really expensive (170$ I believe). Honestly I can say it's the only sub 500$ compressor that is worth buying. But it's hard to find...

http://www.8thstreet.com/product.as...udio_Processors
Are there any price/performance tube compressors out there... something which would desirably color the sound? Or would running it through a tube preamp be a better idea (I thought I read that SOMEWHERE ).

es

quote:

Originally posted by Vert http://www.8thstreet.com/product.as...udio_Processors Are there any price/performance tube compressors out there... something which would desirably color the sound? Or would running it through a tube preamp be a better idea (I thought I read that SOMEWHERE ). es

I've got a nice valve amp that my computer feeds into, makes it sound really nice however I can't master through it, I'd like to try and modify the circuitry so I can master through it, however a working amp for listerning through is a bit higher up in my list of priorities, anyway.

I'd suggest a nice valve preamp rather then a processor with valves built in, and use it last in the mastering chain just to set final levels, always just ads a little bit of sparkle, unless you can afford a mixing desk with inbuilt valves.

Hardware compressor..

The most awesome i ever tried is
TL Audio 5052 IVORY, a friend of mine (alx odden / flipside) got it.. It's expensive, but you get a "in your face" sound back

about the price.. hmmm, around 2300$ here in norway :P

Drawmer compressors are really good too, especially the higher end models. Do you like William Orbit's sound? He uses a Drawmer...but it's like the really really expensive one.

What is it that actually pushes the price to those enormous levels on audio hardware? Is it just very sophisticated technology (can the components be compared to the ones in the average computer when it comes to sophistication, are the audio hardware's internal components expensive by themselves etc.), or is it because of the not so broad customer amount? Just curious, when some audio hardware might equal to the sum of a new car (you get the point)

erm
the knobs and materials are not for free..
The prices are more then reasonable.
I wouldn't know a "normal" piece of audio hardware (not talking about these huge mixing boards) that comes even close to the price of a decent new car.

Why couldn't one say the same about TVs? For sure the parts there are not free as well, but the prices are in average lower than those of an average analogue synth, I would say. I've seen Drawmer compressors being sold for well over 3000$ (don't recall what model). When I browse through the long list of hardware ads in computer music magazines, you see stuff that is priced over 5000�, which is around what I spent for my -00 car with double airbags, 5-doors, air-conditiong, CD-player etc. etc. No hesitation where I would spend my money...

Another type of technology that is hugely overpriced today is most of the digital cameras.

quote:

Originally posted by Vert http://www.8thstreet.com/product.as...udio_Processors Are there any price/performance tube compressors out there... something which would desirably color the sound? Or would running it through a tube preamp be a better idea (I thought I read that SOMEWHERE ). es

Well, sadly the "you get what you pay" rule applies even more here. Most "cheap" models (and even the cheaper models of the so called pro expensive stuff) use some kind of valve emulation. It's not because you see a tube that they use it (usually it's there for the show).

But I'd say, for a decent price, you could try the cheaper TL audio Ivory 2 series, like the 5021 or 5060 (the latter one being a preset based compressor). Both units can be found under $800.

If you ever find a Fairchild 670, know that this is THE tube compressor most sound engineers drool about. They are very hard to find, and if you are lucky enough to find one, they cost a shitload of money. But god do they sound great...

I know I wouldn't pay thousands for a compressor. I mean, there's plenty people who've had tunes signed using mostly software packages, so they can't be too bad...

Yeah, there are loads of crap tunes that were released on big labels too, so why make quality music alltogether?

I guess it all depends on who listens to it. I know people that can't tell a clean 24/96 recording apart from a 128 kbps mp3... If the aim of making music is just to score a label and make millions, why bother?
Music is an art, but it can be very technical at times. As with all art : different people, different taste. Usually those very expensive devices are either very clean sounding, or they color the sound in a good way (usually the coloring of the sound with cheaper gear is just what you don't want).

Of course there's a lot of showing off going on (hey look, I used an Urei 1176 on my track... Yes I can afford that...), but you must understand that some of the gear like the Urei 1176, Teletronix LA2A, Fairchild 670 and consorts are so loved (and pretty much a standard in every big studio). They just have such a distinct character that can add just that little more to your track.

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